I am tickled purple to tell you all that Strange Places was short-listed today for the Saskatchewan Book Awards. Here’s a picture of me smiling at the press conference surrounded by some of the other nominated titles. (Thanks to my friend and fellow author, Carrie Rigby-Wilcox for the photo.)
So, what do awards count for? Some writers, whose opinions I respect, say awards don’t really matter. But I think most of them are speaking from the position of an established career, backed by a large or mid-sized publisher, and perhaps from that point of view, awards don’t make much difference.
Yours Truly, however, is not in such a position. I’m an unknown author from a small province, working with a young publishing company. And even though that publisher is working hard to attract attention to my work, when you’re just getting started like we both are, having more people saying your name and pointing at your work matters.
So I want to say a very loud “thank you” to all the folks at the Saskatchewan Book Awards program for short-listing me. Whether Strange Places and I should win the roll of the dice in April is anybody’s guess, but I won’t be holding my breath, and I really do not care which way it goes. Because between you and me, the simple fact of being short-listed is all the validation I need.
And now I have that.
So… this morning I checked r/fantasy on a whim, which I practically never do, and what should I find but your post about being shortlisted for this award. “Province?” I wondered. “Definitely a Canadian. Let’s see which province.” And as soon as I saw “Saskatchewan” in my browser window I had a suspicion I knew who the author would turn out to be.
Hope you’re well, and congratulations on the book and honours! It’s been frightfully long, but I never forgot the time you landed PIONEERS on a triple-triple. I will have to pick up Strange Places when I’m next in Canada.
Hey, Nick. The coincidence gets deeper. Yesterday, reddit led me to Liz Dubelman’s video Craziest about triple-triple plays, which I then shared with a friend, along with my “PIONEERS, come from behind at the buzzer to win the game” story. So reddit led both of us to the same memory on the same day, through two totally unrelated postings. Weird.
And this gambit has bonus points for the conspiracy fiends, because that video also happened to feature our mutual friend, Albert Hahn, in a pivotal and entirely unexpected role.
Anyway, thanks for the added drama.